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This is my opinion: The price for lead and copper is not going to go down, unless China goes into a depression. If you like a bullet, buy now and buy a lot--at least a case. 1000 is not enough, 5000 is a good start, and 10,000 sets you up for several years and you can always resell bullets later for more money. If bullet prices go up 5-10% year, you are in-line or ahead of inflation. I can't afford jacketed bullets for .40 or .45, but the 9mm jacketed bullets are almost the same as cast lead bullets on a "per bullet" basis. I have just short of 10k 9mm/.38 Super bullets and wish I had more money. I shoot a lot of 9x19, 9x21, and 38 super.

You should not grab a COL out of the air, rely on the minimum COL in the loading manual, or simply copy your buddy's COL. You should use a couple of cases to make inert (no powder or primer) dummy rounds for setting up your dies. You should run a case into the sizing die to align it before you turn down the lock ring. Again, use this case to set the expander. Turn the expander down until you can set a bullet on the empty case and it will just sit there and not tilt. At this point, again run the case into the expander and then turn down the lock ring. Take this case and another through these steps (the second one verifies the settings and shows that the dies are aligned). Bullet seating: assuming you are NOT seating and crimping in one step, place one of the cases on the shell holder and turn the seating die down until it contacts that crimp ring. Turn the seating die body up 1 turn. Place a bullet on the case and run into seating die. Turn the seating stem down until it contacts the bullet. Lower the ram and turn the bullet seater down 1 turn. Run the case/bullet into the seater. This will seat the bullet. Adjust for a COL of 1.16". This should be longer than your gun will feed (9x19 max length is 1.169"). Now, very carefully run the dummy round into a taper crimp die. You do not want any more than remove enough case mouth flare/bell to let the dummy round drop in the barrel. You can coat the bullet and case with Magic Marker and see if hang-up is the bullet or still too much flare remaining. At this point, you can go in small increments to find the COL for that bullet that fits your magazine, feeds and chambers in your gun. Then, adjust the seating stem in about 1/4 turn and re-verify that the dummy rounds still easily feed and chamber. This is VERY close to the optimum COL for YOUR gun and THAT bullet. Getting this right will take case of almost all feeding and chambering problems (i.e., too short is just as bad as too long for reliability). Save the dummy rounds with a tag for bullet ID so you have it to re-set seating die. Then, for loading, just turn the taper crimp die down about 1/4 turn and you should be making good ammo for your gun(s).

I just ordered a Lee 9mm Mak FCD. This die "should" be capable of being used as a Bulge Buster for 9x19 cases. I will let the forum know if it works.

Amazed they have ANY data. Must be a new bullet and want to get sales going. Don't think you'll find any at the other bullet manufacturers' web sites.

What is accurate in my gun may not be in yours. I shoot lead and moly in all my comp guns and have no leading in the comps. Others say they get horrible leading. Some guns can't shoot Rem GSs and for others, it is the ultimate bullet. I get great results with 175gn L-SWCs. Others get lousy results and their guns just chew up 180gn L-TC. However, Bayou are good bullets, for practice or match.

Go to the powder manufacturer's site. There are no "universal" or "secret" loads. What works great for me may not for you. Always use a couple of manuals and the powder manufacturer's site and start with the lowest starting load and work up. Here is some of my compiled data (Note the various manual's starting and max loads): Bullet Weight Powder Weight Velocity Note P.F. COL Lead 180 Unique 3.8 Mild 0 Lead 175-180 Unique 4.7 Start Lead 180 Unique 4.8 0 BBI 180 Unique 5.0 956 172 1.135 Lead 180 Unique 5.2 919 Start 165 1.125 L-TC 180 Unique 5.2 895 Start 161 1.130 RNFP 180 Unique 5.2 891 Start 160 1.122 L-SWC 180 Unique 5.5 973 Max 175 1.125 Lead 180 Unique 5.5 973 Max 175 1.125 Lead 175-180 Unique 5.5 Max RCBS40-180-CMRNFP 180 Unique 5.5 944 170 L-FP 180 Unique 5.5 941 169 1.190 L-RNFP 177 Unique 5.5 933 165 L-TC 180 Unique 5.6 949 Max 171 1.130 RNFP 180 Unique 5.6 941 Max 169 1.122 L-FP 180 Unique 5.9 1018 183 1.190 Unique is a great powder, but not necessarily for the things this site is concerned with. It is an excellent general purpose powder that has no sudden pressure spikes. It meters at about +/- 0.2gn, and will still produce excellent loads.

With toolhead up, screw in bolt but leave a little play. Lower the toolhead and help it align with the various alignment homes. When toolhead is all the way down, then tighten up the bolt all the way. Just like dies, alignment really helps.

I don't know Facebook. Where is the address or phone number?

Crimp is not the first place I look for accuracy. Plated bullets are not the first place I look for accuracy. How many factory bullets use the thin-plated bullets? How many Bullseye shooters use the thin-plated bullets? I get sub-1" groups at 25 yds with most of my guns off a rest and I don't "measure" crimp. I concentrate on aiming and not jerking the trigger. What groups do you get with factory ammo? What groups are you looking to achieve? You can use factory ammo to set the same crimp for your loads. Some guns need a lot of crimp and some need none. Some guns hate certain bullets and powders and other gun love them.s

I have been using a L-N-L AP almost from when they were first introduced. Never had any problem and never needed a turn-buckle. I could only conclude that Hornady fixed a non-problem and made one. Yes, the PTX hits the shell plate on ALL my loads. The smaller the case (say .380 auto), the more the PTX hits the shell plate. It just doesn't matter. Why do people keep trying to fix something that isn't broke just 'cause "it doesn't look right." If you had measured the charge weight on a string of cases, you would have discovered that everything was working just fine. If you are going to use one PTX for .380 auto through .38 Super, you have to accept that some major adjustments need to be made. With the Lee PTE dies, you have individual expander plugs for each cartridge.

Definitely not an indexing issue but a die body length issue. Do your bullets have a cannelure for the crimp? Do you NEED a crimp? I would cycle several inert rounds and check for bullet set-back after 3 chamberings. I have had no issue with my AR and bullet tension and I haven't applied a crimp yet. If you need to crimp, and the Lee die seems like a good choice, contact Lee and they will probably trim the die body length down for you.

You know, there is little evidence that small SD and accuracy go together. Then, you are participating in a sport where accuracy is NOT the deciding factor. Thus, you should be shooting for accuracy and not low SD and be happy with a load that feels right and is more than accurate enough. Remember, a data of 10 is the minimum for SD. Buy some factory and compare SD and accuracy with your loads. Keep in mind what your goal is for a load. I loaded a LOT of different bullets and charge weights, with one set being the same head stamp and the other being very mixed brass. After a little over 200 of these comparisons, the average group size for mixed was about 0.10" smaller than for matching headstamps. Don't chase your tail, unless you have a real reason to.

Bullet Weight Powder Weight Velocity Start/Max Power Factor COL J-all 200 WST 3.2 Fav FMJ 200 WST 3.8 740 Start 148 FMJ 200 WST 4.2 0 FMJ 200 WST 4.5 810 Max 162 MG/Zero FMJ 200 WST 4.6 Major 0 1.200 L-RN 200 WST 3.5 760 152 BBI Lead 200 WST 4.1 Major 0 1.135

OP: Let me re-phrase my question, if you were shooting for 50 yard accuracy, and couldn't use a new case, which once fired brass would you pick? If you want accuracy at 50 yds, measure all your cases and separate all that are 0.750" or longer. These will, almost always, be the most accurate (minimize head space).

Unless the OP is shooting action pistol, there is no NEED for a chrono. If the desire is performance and clean burning, N340 might be perfect. Other non-action-pistol powders would be HS6, Silhouette, and True Blue. All meter smoothly and can get all the safe performance one can get from a 9x19. If AP-minor, then Solo 1000 and AA2 have been well-behaved for me. If AP-major, then I just turn around and walk away.

The strange thing about lead vs. jacketed is: Lead will produce the velocity with less powder than jacketed. Lead will produce, often, nearly the same pressure as jacketed for a given velocity. Lead should be no harder to start moving, but should be much easier to push down the barrel once it is moving, thus one would expect higher velocity for a given charge weight. Next, there is a very good reason why a new powder lot always calls for reworking you load. This is much less of an issue with charge weights over 10gn, but low charge weights of a fast powder is very sensitive to lot number change. Best is to buy 8# of any powder you decide on.

Asked Accurate/Western for load data for Nitro 100 for .45ACP and .38Special. Received the following: Since 2009 we have changed the formulation on the Nitro100 and is now known as Nitro100 New Formulation . Although it performs very similar in the 12ga shotgun (Which is the primary market/use), it does requires different loads in handgun calibers. Therefore it depends on what version of the powder you have. The N100NF requires less powder for the same performance in handgun calibers. Caliber: .38 Special. Barrel length: 6” Powder: Accurate – Nitro 100®. (Original recipe) Bullet weight: 148 WC Target load. COL: 1.155” to 1.250” Start load: 2.0 grains (ca 750 Fps) Maximum load: 2.3 grains (ca 875 Fps). Powder: Accurate – Nitro 100®. -- (New Formulation). Bullet weight: 148 WC Target load. COL: 1.155” to 1.250” Start load: 1.8 grains (ca 700 Fps) Maximum load: 2.1 grains (ca 850 Fps). Caliber: .45 ACP. Barrel length: 5” Powder: Accurate – Nitro 100® – (Original). Bullet weight: 200 grains. Start load: 4.4 grains (ca 750 Fps) Maximum load: 4.9 grains (ca 850 Fps). Powder: Accurate – Nitro 100® -- (New Formulation). Bullet weight: 200 grains. Start load: 3.7 grains (ca 750 Fps) Maximum load: 4.1 grains (ca 850 Fps).

Wes777: I have not invested in any of the super "competition" micrometer seating dies, so I can not talk about them. Re: Lee seating dies-- I had assumed, since the seating stems did not fit the bullets well, that the Lee dies would produce poorer ammunition. Running off the same loads with different combinations of seating and crimp dies, I got the highest and most consistent accuracy with either Hornady or Lee seating dies and the Lee FCD crimp was always the same or better than the other taper or roll crimp dies. However, the best roll crimp die was always the Redding Profile Crimp die. With age, my hands have begun to shake when I try to do fine work, like place a bullet exactly straight on a case. For this reason, I am currently using Lee seating dies with the bullet feeder die. I place 5-6 bullets in the feeder die and hand cycle the bullet to be seated. Every cycle I drop another bullet in the feeder die. I have considered the RCBS or Hornady bullet feeder dies, but that would take the place of the Lock-Out die. The Hornady sizing die, with the TiN ceramic sizing ring, was the smoothest and easiest to size and sizes down lower than any of my other sizing dies. I would assume the Redding TiC would be similar.

Wes777: Don't reject Lee dies. 1) The seating die produces very accurate ammunition and I am not sure why. The seating stem doesn't fit the bullets very well, but when I load a batch using a Lee seating die, a hornady seating die, a Dillon seating die, an RCBS seating die, and a Redding seating die, the Lee is always #1 or #2 for accuracy. 2) The PTE die in all the pistol calibers I have tried does an excellent job of expanding the case interior and is very convenient to use with a Lee powder measure for loading 10-20 individual rounds at various charges. All my Dillon 1050s have at least two Lee dies on the tool head.

I bought the 1050 DVD. One of the 1050s I bought had been disassembled quite a bit to pack into the smallest box possible and I needed some help. The important part for me was actually watching the person set-up everything. It does cover caliber conversion. Seeing how he did the various operations was very useful. Someone should have watched him and written the manual based on that. I had a hard time removing the priming slide cycling arm assembly (don't have drawings in front of me for exact name), but I saw the way the operator lowered the handle about 1/3 down and the assembly slid right out. It was these details that make a $40 DVD worthwhile for a $1650 press.

Sarge: Recommend NOT talking to Dillon. They have proven to you that they can't paint. Disassemble the whole press and take all the blue parts down to a custom automotive painter and have them strip of the bad paint and give you a paint job you can take pride in. Or, if blue isn't that critical, maybe they could give you a nice electroless nickel finish...

I wouldn't stick any of my friends with a crippled machine like the SDB or the 550B. I've looked at the SDB (in the Dillon store so I did "use" it and cycled a few rounds) and used a 550b and disliked both. Do you REALLY want a 4-station press? After all this time, do you REALLY want to consider a manual-indexing press? I don't find the caliber conversion that bad on the 1050. Now, if you only load a couple of 100 of each cartridge and switch over more than once a week, then the caliber conversion is a pain and you don't NEED a 1050. If you have established loads for the .45 and rifles, load a large stock of them and then convert to .38 Special and play with it to your heart's content to find loads you like while working through your stockpile. I would save a lot of time and frustration and buy a Hornady L-N-L for small primer operations until I "needed" to get another 1050, but that is just me. It is super easy to make caliber conversions, is much less expensive, yet, in my experience, very close to the 650XL (in fact, since the 650 I used did not have a case feeder, it was superior). I read a lot of whining about the L-N-L, but none of it matches my experiences. Don't buy a 550B or 650XL without a case feeder.

Get the DVD. Dillon should ship it with every press. Manual needs some work. I stick with my "spring-loaded" powder measures. Always cycle all the way up and all the way down. Maintain a steady, consistent handle cycling speed.

Unless you are using way too lube or loading in excess of 60 ksi, the lube will not hurt any thing. Personally, if I can't do it all on one head, I would get a cheap single stage press for the trimmer. Of course, my rifle needs are not enough to worry about it as I have problem trimming 100-200 cases at a time.

I do, quite successfully. Also, standard cast lead bullets. The question is does your gun/barrel handle them OK?